AZ2 Bounty 5: Dwarf Focus

This is the fourth bounty for AZ2 PvE theorycrafting. For the next 30 days, the focus will be Dwarves. Submission deadline will be Friday, August 25, 2017 @ 11:59pm ET.

I am offering a 1400 platinum bounty for each class setup that receives the most acclaim by your peers by the end of the 30 days. In other words 1400 platinum each for the chosen deck for Cleric, Mage, Warrior, and Ranger. That's 5600 platinum up for grabs! (Unfortunately I can't go higher than this currently on my own if I want to sustain this for the months to come.)

The budget of your deck is not an issue. Your goal is to make the best overall deck for each class. I understand that some encounters in the campaign will require whole new builds but the goal is to create a general optimized setup for each class that players can work towards as they climb to the current cap of Level 15.

Note: If there are any changes to be made to the bounty, I will update here ASAP.

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Requirements:

Champion must be at Level 15.

The race must be Dwarf.

One class per post.

If you have multiple decks, submit only your best deck for that class.

You may submit one deck per class.

Edit your posts as necessary and make note of the changes in your update.

Last edit time must be prior to deadline.

Please follow Submission Format.

The main three goals of your deck should be and I hope the community will judge the decks based on these factors:

Consistency (how consistent is it?)

Flexibility (how well can it handle the majority of encounters?)

Speed (how quickly can it end the average encounter?)

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Submission Format:

Class: <Class>

Talents:

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Decklist:

Resources:

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Troops:

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Bullets

Actions:

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Constants:

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Artifacts:

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Equipment:

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Mercenaries:

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Details: <Explanation of strategy and usage of deck including potential substitutions (if available).>

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Prizes:

Best Build of Cleric: 1400 platinum
Best Build of Mage: 1400 platinum
Best Build of Warrior: 1400 platinum
Best Build of Ranger: 1400 platinum

Inspired by the Dwarf-specific spell: Technomorph, which transforms a troop into a random artifact, this deck constantly creates mini-troops to act as techno-targets and effect which use the bodies until you either (i) techno-up a random bomb, (ii) swarm through with random middlings, or (iii) pull out one of your own game-enders.

The first tum always starts the same...
1) use your charge power,
2) attack with Baxoth's dreadling, and
3) Technomorph it mid-combat.

From there, be opportunistic.

On the second turn, you can already technomorph again, so hit Bebo's worker bot and attack (if it's a troop). By this time, you'll use your mana to start either building up your hand or the rest of your army.

Even if your first three technomorphs turn up duds, this deck is designed to turn any card to your advantage. Immortal tears pull off-color shards if you need them, Kismet and polyberries give you a re-roll at any true duds.

If all else fails, you can still power through with a few game enders like the Megahulk, Tavish, or Jankbot herself.

This is not a speed-run deck because all the randomness does require thought, but it is immensely fun... and can be absolutely overwhelming if Kismet's on your side.

Details
Pocket Army is one of the best things that ever happened to the Dwarves in the latest sets, because it introduced not only an alternate win condition for some aggro decks, but also allowed for various Dwarf synergy shenanigans. Its equip had also made this synergy even stronger and explosive.

Pocket Army Dwarf Warrior decks attacks enemy on three flanks: by a thousand dreadling cuts, by big guys and by going wide with army thus enabling War Machinist and Dread Technomancer. Usually you spend a first couple turns setting up your board (ideally a 1-drop Dwarf into a 2-drop artifact reduction Dwarf) and then go off in a way that is the most suitable for situation at hand.

Important points to consider:

I am not running any Training talents because of the sheer amount of low-power troops in the deck. This decision allowed me to focus on the left side of warrior's talent tree effectively taking Berserking, Fortifications and Preparations;

Berserking is a double-edged... erm, axe. You have 15 starting health, which is rather low, but you compensate it with downright lethal dreadlings and a fair amount of troops in play (Wall from Fortifications, Worker Bot from B.E.B.O.). I found that amount of health to be just fine unless you run into a lot of early flight troops. If you find yourself lacking in this area, you can always replace it with Warrior affinity, Deep Pockets etc.;

Your starting hand is quite big for an usual Warrior setup, which lets you to painlessly put Forge of Cadoc into play (usually by removing the artifact gained through the lvl 15 ability);

Because of the Wall in play Blueberry Pouch has a great synergy with Boiling Blood because it allows you to swing with a high-cost troop at once and gain a lot of resources this way. To be fair, it also has an anti-synergy with cost reduction effects, but that downside is quite manageable;

You can try Forge Flock instead of a VB213, one Forge of Cadoc or one Commander. It can grow rather fast when you are going wide with Pocket Army;

Sekki is a very good mercenary for this deck because you effectively start with 11 0-cost cards;

Resource base is really tricky for this deck, and I am rather comfortable with the current one. I can see it using one less Forge, but I am not sold on it just yet;

Because of the initial build-up your usual clock is turn 4 +/-1. I have seen t2 wins with this deck, but these are mostly exceptions.
This deck had cleared all of the available content. Not without a hitch, mind you, but it still is a fair achievement. Mad Aradam took a couple of attempts, and the win was fairly close to me dying, but dreadlings prevailed.

Details: The obvious thing to do with any race that has access to ruby is build a mono-ruby aggro deck abusing Lazgar's Vengeance or Xocoy. I decided to do something completely different. Its powerful but slow.

This is a combo deck were every card is either resource acceleration, card draw, or a win condition. The first few turns are generally just playing shards and drawing cards - your ranger talents and pet allow you to buy time. Transcend and Ascension should be discarded whenever possible. Candlelight is also usually fine to discard. Pyre Ceremony can hit the BEBO robot, Chew Toy, your pet, or Slithering Marauders depending on the point in the game. When you get a critical mass of card you just start asking these questions over and over - Do I need more resources to keep combing? Do I need more cards to continue combing? Do I have enough of the first two to start killing the AI? Most often the game ends by dealing lethal damage in one turn with Candlelights. The army of candlekins you inevitably make are plan B, and can be useful against opponents with 50+ life. The deck starts to feel very intuitive after a little bit of practice.

It's not going to be the fastest of decks but it's very consistent against all encounters.

The idea is to gain as many charges as possible and combine it with elementals who make good use of charge powers (stormsprite, rift spasm, Rockslider).
We gain charges mostly by playing blessings, but also with crackling bolts and lightning elementals.
Since the charge power can be used every turn, we end up with tons of blessings giving +1/+1 to our most expensive troop combines very well with Boltwing phoenix and end up playing Saarthu almost for free.
Most cards have a fairly obvious usage, the exceptions are:
- Theorize is used to send a Stormsprite, to the graveyard and then starting to revive all our dead elementals.
- Crushing blow is here to be able to damage the opponent with a ligntning elemental or a huge rift spasm.

Taking full advantage of the dwarven armor and Blessing Rod - you just need to pull a couple blessings before going critical.

This deck wins either on (i) a swarm of Broom Bots / Ancestral Specters or (ii) a few giant ones enhanced by your blessings.

Until then, you churn through your deck faster and faster each turn, throwing out blessings and chump blockers the whole time.

Early charges / blessings are important, hence the Charge Bots and Merc picks. Once you get a blessing in your crypt, the 11 cards that produce Broom Bots start really moving - each providing +1/+1, a charge, a free draw, and 4 health.

Lady Dev (extra good with blessings) and Dream Dance (extra good with Ancestral Specters) put you in overdrive.

The Triolith jumpstarts the whole process, accelerating like mad while also filling your crypt.

Overall, the deck gains health and provides expendable troops so fast that it doesn't have problems with any of the current PvE content. Mad Aradam is the hardest by far, but just requires keeping Lady Dev safe and being comfortable not playing all of your Specters/blessings.

I don't have my dwarf cleric at level 15 yet, but I'm toying with the Arena Regular with helmet equip (Gladiator Helm) and Bloodlust with trinket equip (Banner of Blood) combo for the exponentially stacking damage multipliers. The idea is to use a lot of charge generation card combinations such as Arcane Alacrity Sapphire's Favor, Blessing with the Blessing Rod, the various crackling cards such as Crackling Tide and Crackling Bolt while Arena Regular and Bloodlust are on the board to stack up the 2x damage multipliers. Gain charges, use charge power, watch Arena Regular wreck face. Note that Arena Regular hits all opposing champions, so if/when co-op PvE is released and there are encounters with multiple opposing champions, the damage multipliers will stack even faster and wreck faces (plural) even faster! I'm not high enough level to test whether a 60 card deck or a 100 card deck would be better for this idea, but it's a work in progress, but with the dwarven innate Armor 1, the ability to gain Armor 2 as a cleric, and the massive amounts of healing through Blessings and Healing Aura, dwarf clerics are pretty tanky.

First Update Log:

Cutting out a lot of cards from the potentials due to whatever reasons, such as triple thresholds ( Fireball, Frostbite), lack of utility function ( Energize), more weight than worth ( Shrine of Prosperity), etc. Also trying the 60 card format for a better Arena Regular and Bloodlust draw chance. Changed speculative talents to reflect this as well.

Cards apparently not yet listed for use with the card tag:
Arcane Alacrity, Paired Power, Shrine of Briggadon, Sapphire's Favor

The Deck: Arena BloodbathRace/Class: Dwarf Cleric

Because my dwarf cleric isn't level 15 yet, I'll just update this as I go.

Speculative Talents: (14 points at level 15)

Hale (1)

Healing Aura (2)

Aura Aspect: Good Karma (1)

Blessed Birth (1)

Premonitions (1)

Cleric Class Gems (1)

Unlock: Shrine of Briggadon (1)

Holy Hands (2)

Diligent Study (1)

Unlock: Divine Altar (1)

Blessing of the Immortals (2)

Decklist: (60 cards)

Work in progress... guess I'll work out the exact listing after I get my dwarf cleric to level 15. Huh... apparently the card tag doesn't work in an unordered list...

3x Dream Eagle equipped with Eagle Feathered Gloves (Gloves): Your Dream Eagles have, "[SAPPHIRE][SAPPHIRE]: Discard this --> Look at the top four cards of your deck. Put one of them into your hand. Put the remaining cards into your deck."

[CHEST] Phantasmal Armor: Your Spectral Acorns instead have, "[EXHAUST] -->: Gain +<3/3>, gain three of the same threshold of your choice, and return this to your hand. Then, this irreversibly transforms into a Mystic Squirrel."

[GLOVES] Eagle Feathered Gloves: Your Dream Eagles have, "[SAPPHIRE][SAPPHIRE]: Discard this --> Look at the top four cards of your deck. Put one of them into your hand. Put the remaining cards into your deck."

[WEAPON] Twisted Shuriken: Your Crackling Bolts have, "Gain a charge for each card in your crypt with Crackling in its name."

Mercenaries:

Tafford the Tireless - At the start of the game, create two Blessings and put them into your deck.

Slamvolt - At the start of the game, two random artifacts in your deck get "Deploy - Gain a charge." (This might change if it doesn't affect Divine Altar and Shrine of Briggadon. The Spectral Acorns have Spectral and shouldn't be affected by this I think...

Jusicus Elderberry - A random card in your deck gets "When you draw this, create a copy of it and put it into your hand."

Alternative Mercenaries:

Mother Beatrice - At the start of the game, four random actions in your deck get Illuminate 1.

Spirit of the Triumvirate - At the start of the game, 3 random troops in your deck get Flight, Speed, and Steadfast.

Tealwing - At the start of the game, two random constants in your deck get "Deploy - Summon a Birdeaucrat."

Clatterclank - At the start of the game, if you have more cards in your deck than each opposing champion, gain a charge.

Strategy:

Well, the driving concept behind this deck seems pretty straightforward: dig for the Arena Regular and Bloodlust combo by chaining Blessings and discarding Dream Eagles and then go nuts gaining charges and using charge abilities. Plan B? Swing and hit face with whatever bodies you manage to get. Some notes on things that may or may not be obvious:

Granted that your Arena Regular won't be in immediate danger, generally you'll want to play your Arena Regular before playing your shards and activating your charge powers and chaining your blessings for the turn.

Crackling Tide and Sapphire's Favor can be used to protect your Arena Regular from removal as well as their other functions.

Paired Power into another Paired Power means all other actions in your hand get cost -3 and 3x copies. Copying Blessing is a decent way to refill your hand with cards while gaining health on the side. Note that cards that are copied on the stack aren't technically played, so only the original Blessing counts for Blessing Rod and similarly with original actions for Arcane Alacrity. However, actions that gain charges upon resolution are deadly when copied while having the Arena Regular and Bloodlust synergy.

Shrine of Briggadon is a bomb in itself: Two of those discarded Dream Eagles will come back onto the field with +1/+1 and crush and restock your hand with two Peek effects (granted if those are the only troops in your crypt)

The Blessing chains with a Dream Skarn on the field can potentially be a one-sided board wipe.

If you have nothing better to target with Blessing of the Immortals, Dream Eagle makes a great target for digging while giving you a body and Paired Power makes a great target if you have lots of actions in your hands and the cost reduction will let you chain them all. But of course, if you have a clean answer in your crypt for something problematic or if you have a key piece of your combo in your crypt, prioritize what makes the most sense.

I don't have a dwarf cleric at 15 yet so take what I say with a grain of salt.

The post was edited 2 times, last by Ravengrove: First update. Still not a level 15 dwarf cleric yet... sad. And oh, a character limit... double sad. (Aug 24th 2017, 4:22am).

Weapon: Artificer's Mallet (Glendower), add random 1-cost artifact when you play a dwarf

Chest: Prophecy Cover (Tale of Destiny), return from crypt when unique enters play

Mercenaries:

Spirit of the Triumvirate

Katsuhiro

Claterclank

About the deck:

This deck is all about unique troops... and lots of them. Sporting 30 troops and 27 uniques, you take full advantage of the Warrior's Training tree. You've also got some great combo-y shinanegans that abuse the extra cover / disruption provided by Dwarven armor and Electro-Stun Weaponry.

The real power comes from three cards that go bonkers in a deck full of uniques: Exiled Bard, Tale of Destiny, and Restless Fabricator.

The first two are pretty straightforward, though there are some subtle interactions with VB213 that let you go infinite at 3 mana if you're lucky, 6 if you're not... and it's all even easier with the Blacksmithing talent as VB213 is visible and playable on top.

Restless Fabricator is the real surprise all-star here because replicas can copy uniques. It's the only way to get a board full of Bards, Glendowers, VBs, etc. In a pinch you can also copy *any* card, whether you want to make an extra Jackhat or even get a copy of something across the board, you're set!

Starting with the Castle Wall is pretty important while you get your motor running. Fortunately, even hitting a Guilt or Wound isn't so bad since the rest of your curve is so low. If you don't get any of your synergy bombs and none of your card draw turns up with any safe way to attack, you still have a base of Holidays and robots improve every turn.

All in, it's a fun deck and shocking durable. Who ever knew humans, dwarves, and robots could get along so well!?!

Rather than sneak around like those shifty Vennen, we hit hard with our Robo-Dog.

Runic Fury was meant for our pup. Two turns of three extra attack *and* crush!? That is exactly what we needed. Unfortunately, we have to wait until we get three resources to get there, but no rest for the wicked!

Unless you have pyre ceremony to roast Bebo's poor little worker, we've got the lay some groundwork on turns one and two. Do this by getting out your supporting permanents like Arcane Alacrity, Fury Chant, and Kindling Skarn. You'll also want to roast any stray blockers if they've got any pesky abilities like Lethal.

Steadfast lets your Robo-pup chew on her toy after every battle and the extra toughness makes sure you can keep attacking even if they get some larger threats past your removal.

If you get to 5 resources, Runic Avalanche lets you blow things right out of the water (if the ping from Fury Chant isn't enough already)!

Details: Dwarf warriors have a cool charge power that can let you tempo out the AI. Affinity: Warrior gives you the charges you need to get two activations by turn 4. Unfortunately sapphire's warriors are almost non-existent, so its easy to fall back on a D/R Ardent deck. Furious Blitzers are in the deck as the only non-warriors because they allow you to activate the Pyreblade Slicer equipment.

1 Mad Robomancer (socketed with Minor Ruby of Zeal and Major Sapphire of Clarity for swiftstrike and Cost -1)

2 Tavish, Construct Guild Boss

3 Scraptooth Cyborg

2 Eternal Drifter

2 Buzzteck Innovator (socketed with Minor Sapphire of Wit for buffs when playing actions)

1 Slaughtergear's Replicator

2 Pterobot

2 War Bot Dropship

1 Synn, Etherdrake Nomad

1 Eternal Seeker

1 Eternal Guardian

2 Tectonic Megahulk

Actions:

2 Morphology

3 Crackling Bolt

2 Battle Agenda

1 Robotic Rapture

Constants:

-None-

Artifacts:

2 Sapper's Charge

2 Construction Plans: Hornet Bot

1 Eternal Relic

3 Cerebral Jackhat

1 Constructon Plans: Ingenuity Engine

3 Construction Plans: War Hulk

2 Deployment Orders

Equipment:

Head: Thought Accelearator for Junk Repurposer

Trinket: Imagination Drafter for Inginous Engineer

Chest: Redefineable Adaptable Cuirass Device for S.P.A.M. Bot

Gloves: Toolbox Glove for Junk Repurposer

Feet: Enhanced Boots for Scraptooth Cyborgs

Weapon: Electric Flail for Lightning Elemental

Mercenaries:

Clatterclank for the charge

B.E.B.O. for a worker Bot at the start of the game

Tafford the Tireless for 2 more Blessings in your Deck right from the start

Details:

I started playing dwarf and directly after crayburn castle i made a 150 card deck because its so much fun to play with jankbot and dwarfs are the perfect racial for that!
But for the first time the deck was more fun than effective, so i had to find something consistent (in a 150 card deck.....).
But with AZ2 hitting and the new Talent trees you can easily fill your deck with so much glove equipped guys, that you will draw them nearly every game.
and the Junk Repurposer are insane with both equips.
They collect Junk Counters for each artifact going to your crypt and for each artifact that is already there when they hit the board!
and for 3 Counters you get a 3/3 bot and draw a card. with more Repurposers on board you only draw more cards!
So dont want to keep all artifacts alive, just let them hit your crypt, your hand can only be better after that with Junk Repurposers on board:)

The next thing that will draw alot of cards are the blessings. You start with alot of them into your deck already and makes 4 more each 2 charges. playing a bleesing makes 1 charge, so for playing 2 you get 4 new! And that all without Divine Altar! So you get much health (4 each blessing), buffs your best troop and draw a lot of cards! That charge generation also is very nice together with the lightning elemental to buff him every turn!
And your blessings will be pop up very fast most times, because you move them every time you cast them one space up and every turn another space!
Thanks to alot of card draw and Diligent Study you can play with only 37% Ressources in your deck (yes, the study will move your shards above too) and nearly never have a problem with shard screw!

I mean, you start with 7 cards + cards drawn for every blessing in your starting hand and you can put one card from 3 random chosen on the top of your deck at the start of the game. Thats most time enough for hitting 2-3 ressources and start playing:D

This Deck isnt the fastest most times, thats right, but thanks to much blessings, Lifelink for my clerics and Healing Aura in play + the dwarf armor you can easily tank 3-4 turns before you are forced to chump block something.
the start of the game if most time playing plans and ready them, if you do with inginous engineer it goes faster, and if you have chimera bot doing this they'll only get better
There isnt much interaction with the oppenent board in the deck, only 5 actions and 2 sapper's charge + 3 eliminations spiecialist, but thx to the purposers you can easily overwhelm the enemy.
Or you get one of your other Bombs like jankbot, megahulk, reese, syyn, warbot dropship (big card advantage with your purposers!) or clear the enemy board with your scraptooth cyborgs
and nearly all of your big hitters are searchable with tavish and a normal sized board (tavish + 4 robots/dwarf = jankbot!)

I really like this deck for its consistent even with 150cards and the much of toys you can add in such big decks.
The big troops can easily be changed for your own best cards and even toys like eternal relic can be played here without problems:D
I know that the deck isnt very fast and can have some loss with much bad luck, but playing a 60 card deck as dwarf is like eating hot dog without sausage for me

Details: Basic game plan is to get out a Sniper or Slaughtergear troop and then bring out more copies (either literally with Duke or Fire with Fire or just more of the actual cards) of them, taking advantage of the multiplicative effect theses troops have when more of them are in play. The deck gets away with using a relatively low number of shards by using cards that increase temporary resources (Clarity, Ceremony, Forge) or reduce cost on the Slaughtergear troops by giving Ruby threshold (Geode, Device, Bauble). It can also use the Soothsaying spell if necessary to search for more shards (or more Snipers/Slaughtergear troops). B.E.B.O's Worker Bot or the Guardian Golem can be used as targets for Technomorph or Pyre Ceremony. Doppelgadget can be used for more Slaughtergear troops or on a Forge for more resources. With extra charges from Clatterclank, Device, Ceremony, and Bauble (if needed), you should have plenty of spell power to use for whatever spells seem best: Soothsaying or Technomorph as described (if you get an especially good Technomorph result, you can use your copy creators on it instead of the usual troops), Magic Missile to clear out small troops, do extra damage, or just for an extra point of spell power with its first use, or Telekinesis to clear out a blocker or save one of your troops. Talent variations include removing Self Knowledge (or Guardian Golem) and Worldly Knowledge to get Unlock: Spell Sprites (more spell power, more 0 cost cards to start with for Sekki) and Learn Spell: Magic Barrier (not usually cast, but helps out Learning). Clatterclank seems to add a charge even when his condition isn't met; if this is a bug, make sure to include Spell Sprites for more cards in deck or use a different mercenary.

Use Polyberry Pouch (perhaps instead of Doppelgadget?) to have more 0 cost cards for Sekki and add in some fun randomness (best used on a Technomorphed troop, could also use on a Duke that's shifted its power).

Because of the number of starting cards in hand and the use of the Soothsaying spell and/or mulligans if necessary, the deck is quite consistent. When using the version with Spell Sprites and Magic Barrier, a quick run through GMG took 4, 4, 3, 3, 2, and 3 turns for each fight, while a run through Kukatan took 4, 3, 4, 2, 4, and 3 turns, so the deck is also reasonably fast (though the number of options with spells can slow it down if you really want to play optimally and think through your moves) with occasional turn two wins and generally taking 3 or 4 turns (a starting Forge can make a big difference, especially when combined with a Ceremony or Clarity which can then be cast on turn one) (what card you get with Secret Knowledge can also make a big difference if you draw it quickly - another reason to use Soothsaying). Haven't yet tried piloting it through the harder fights to check out its versatility, but my guess is that its versatility in spells would allow it to make it through most fights, while it might need more resources for Aradam.

"A storm of madness approaches these shores; let us meet it with a tempest of our own."

The post was edited 1 time, last by Stormshard: Edit: added note about Polyberry Pouch variation (Aug 25th 2017, 11:23am).

Preface:
So I don't have a character slot to even try out a dwarf mage, but the theme of the deck revolves around Ricochet Blast equipped with the Fire-Touched Claws (Gloves): "Mages you control get '[1-SHOT]: (0) --> Deal 2 damage to a random opposing champion or troop' this turn." Some key mages are Boomsmith equipped with Boom Shoes (Feet): Your Boomsmiths have, "Mages you control have 'This deals double damage.'" and Smitebringer. The basic idea is to play a Ricochet Blast with all of your mages repeating it to wipe the board and burn face, and swing out for even more damage. Hmm, this might even work with dwarf cleric taking advantage of the holy hands for even more Ricochet Blasts.

Jusicus Elderberry - A random card in your deck gets "When you draw this, create a copy of it and put it into your hand."

Mother Beatrice - At the start of the game, four random actions in your deck get Illuminate 1.

Spirit of the Triumvirate - At the start of the game, 3 random troops in your deck get Flight, Speed, and Steadfast.

Strategies:

Seeming how this is all untested by me because I don't have an orc mage because character slots... the speculative strategy seems to be get your mages out and use Ricochet Blast. There are a lot of orc mages so that the Bloodlust can give them stacking 2x damage multipliers everytime they hit face. Also, Treacherous Pass can be used to exhaust Stalagmage when it can't safely swing. Also, the debuff to enemy troops when you get 5 counters is nice. Soooooo, if anyone tests this out and finds ways to improve it, do share. Otherwise I have to wait for more character slots

The post was edited 3 times, last by Ravengrove: Named the deck. Also changed chest equipment from Archmage Wrenlocke's equip to Stalagmage's equip because it just fits the theme of the deck much better. Also replacing Wrenlocke with Lava Shaper because that just fits the theme of the deck much better. (also formatting typo) (Aug 26th 2017, 2:44am).

As the deadline has now passed, here are the following decks that have been submitted (that I think meet the requirements at first glance with some leeway - let me know if I've missed something or made an error):